


Phan Drabble Collection

by littlelionsloves



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Angst, Drabbles, Fluff, M/M, Sadness, couple sad ones but i'll say at the start, mostly fluffy though
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-15
Updated: 2017-02-16
Packaged: 2018-06-08 11:38:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 5,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6853123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlelionsloves/pseuds/littlelionsloves
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just some drabbles I thought of and probably wrote cos I was bored in class or procrastinating<br/>(if there's possible triggers the warnings will be in the notes at the start of chapters)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Cuddle Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phil is hell bent on getting his cuddles, even if it gets in the way of Dan finally editing his new video.

**Word Count: 446**

Dan was sat on his chair and was just setting up his camera to start filming when Phil wandered in in his pyjamas, hair messy and glasses on wonkily.

“Dan…”

“Yeees…”

“Come cuddle with me.”

Dan looked around and raised an eyebrow at Phil, then went back to fiddling with his camera. Whenever Dan wants to cuddle Phil claims he’s busy with taxes or actually important things, so when Phil wants to cuddle, why should Dan agree?

“I’m busy - I was actually going to be productive today.”

Even as he said it he felt a sharp pang of loss at the missed opportunity, but he figured he’d get cuddles later that night and that Phil should know how it feels.

When Dan glanced up again Phil looked strangely determined to get his cuddles, which made Dan hesitate a second before he continued with setting everything up to film.

Phil snuck up behind Dan and started planting one kiss after the other on Dan’s neck, and Dan couldn’t stop the delicious shiver that went down his spine, or the goosebumps that showed clearly how much he enjoyed it. He cursed a little under his breath, then turned his head to steal a kiss from Phil.

“Daaan… Cuddle time.”

“Phiiil,” Dan replied, stretching out the i, and letting out a short breathy gasp as Phil did something different with his tongue and teeth and lips. “I promised I’d upload this video this week and,"  _gasp_ , "it’s going to take  _ages_  to edit.”

“Don’t care. Cuddle time.”

Dan considered it for a moment, but when Phil took his hand and started trying to drag him over to the bed with that same determined expression on his face he gave in and let himself be guided to his bed. He lay down on his back so Phil could snuggle in and wrapped his arm around Phil’s shoulders while he threw one arm over Dan’s stomach carelessly and tucked the other one between them as he tangled one of his legs with Dan’s. Dan pulled him a little closer and moved his head to kiss the top of Phil’s, smiling a little as he smelled the raspberry shower gel he still used as he got closer.

“Your methods aren’t fair you know. When you say you’re busy I just leave you to it, but now who knows?”

“Don’t care, it was cuddle time.”

“I hate you,” Dan mumbled into Phil’s hair, and Phil tilted his head up to press a last light kiss to Dan’s neck.

“And I love you.”

“Ok I love you too but still.”

They both smiled to themselves and slowly drifted off to sleep, utterly content.


	2. Wailing Wars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dan singing in the shower turns into a full blown competition for who can sing worse, plus the bonus of Dan in a towel.

**Word Count: 653**

**Phil’s POV**

“Dan! Stop singing!”

I pounded on the bathroom door as I tried to block out at least some of the sound by using me free hand to protect one of my ears. Hopefully this way I wouldn’t be completely deaf by the time the ordeal was over. If it ever would be over - I doubted he’d hear anything I did over his damn wailing and the shower.

“Daaan!”

The terrible singing continued, and when he tried (and failed) to hit some of the higher notes of the song I had to stop trying to get his attention for a moment so I could clamp my hand over my other ear to protect it.

In a moment of panic I kicked the door, and that finally seemed to get his attention as the “singing” stopped for a moment.

Apparently deciding it was nothing he continued, and when an even more out of tune wail came through the door I seriously considered the possibility of just moving and finding a new roommate. One that could sing. Or one that had the good sense not to sing if they knew they had a terrible voice.

The time had come to bring out my greatest weapon. Very carefully I removed my hands from my ears and shuffled a bit closer to the door so I could make out the lyrics a bit better. Then I started to join in, making sure the notes I sang were just as out of tune as Dan’s and cupping my hands around my mouth so my voice would ring through a little bit more loudly.

It only took a couple of lines of the song for Dan to realise it couldn’t possibly be just him producing those godawful noises and to stop singing. I kept going, getting more into it as the song progressed so that by the time Dan turned the shower off I was screeching the words at the top of my voice with only the tiniest bit of my brain worrying about the neighbours.

When the door opened I had moved on to wild dancing as I wailed at the top of my voice, and it only got less enthusiastic for a second when I saw how hot he looked, hair curly from the shower and the towel he’d quickly wrapped around his hips falling lower and lower down his hips a little, and a lick of lust went through me. It was only a second though, I then continued to butcher the song quite happily.

“Yo Phil! Shut up!”

“Make meee,” I retorted, singing my reply in the same tune as the song.

He huffed and grabbed my face and gave me almost no warning of what was gonna happen as he brought his lips down to mine. Needless to say, the singing stopped.

I expected him to pull back after he achieved his mission, maybe with a smug grin as he went back to his shower, but he only paused for a couple of seconds, his forehead resting against mine, to regain his breath.

This time when he kissed me it was more tentative, him checking to see if I was alright with it. I kissed him back as enthusiastically and passionately as I could to show that it was more than alright with me, and he responded with the same enthusiasm.

When we finally broke apart I couldn’t help the huge grin that spread over my face, and I backed away slowly.

“Clearly, the lesson here is that I should do that more often…”

The look on his face as he lunged for me, one hand outstretched and the other keeping his towel in place, was priceless, and catching me was easier than he would have thought. I wasn’t about to run from more kisses.

“How about we do more of this instead,” he asked, and he brought his lips back down to mine again.


	3. Farewell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A letter explaining why Phil can’t stay anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings: suicide note, depression, self harm mentions and also written really badly

**Word Count: 817**  
**Phil’s POV**

Dan,

I’ve thought about what I could possibly write so many times, and each time I could think of dozens, sometimes hundreds of things I wanted you to know before I left. But now that I’m here and it’s not just fantasizing anymore I seem to have so little to say. How do you pack years of emotions into a single letter? How do you express thousands of thoughts and wishes and moments in just ink on paper? Is it even possible to compact all the unspoken words into something as simple as this?

I have absolutely no idea, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to do my very best because I owe you the best explanation I can possibly give.

You once asked me to describe what it was like to be depressed and I told you I couldn’t answer that because it varied from person to person. Truth is, I just didn’t want you to know quite how badly I was coping.

For me, depression wasn’t just always feeling sad. It was so much more complicated than that. It wasn’t as simple as waking up one day and realising I’d stopped feeling happy. It was so gradual I barely noticed until I looked back and realised I’d felt happier before than I could even begin to imagine feeling now.

After I figured out what the problem was it was finding myself weeping on the bathroom floor at three in the morning because I didn’t have the energy to get up to go back to my bed. It was lying awake for hours panicking about all the things I didn’t want to experience and worrying about the future I couldn’t see myself having. It was going to sleep and hoping I wouldn’t wake up. It was feeling like getting out of bed was the biggest thing I could achieve.

It was constantly surrounding myself with people but never feeling more alone. It was never understanding why people put up with me because I hated myself too much to see anything worth sticking around for. It was doubting everyone who told me they loved me because if I couldn’t find anything in myself to love, how could someone else? It was needing someone who could tell me they loved me and tell me I was beautiful and tell me they didn’t care about my scars or my past and being able to believe them, but knowing it would never happen.

It was taking a shower and seeing the razor as an escape. It was wearing long sleeved tops and always worrying they would ride up to show the scars and red lines that crisscrossed over my hips, my waist, my ribs and parts of my stomach. It was feeling terrified that someone would hug me too tightly and that I would bleed through my clothes. It was tearing my skin apart day after day because it was the only thing left that could make me feel.

It was hugging everyone I loved as tightly as I could every time I had to leave them because I never knew if I’d have the strength not to throw myself under a car before I saw them again. It was never wanting to let you go because I couldn’t think of a way to tell you how much you meant to me and how much I loved you. It was linking everything I did to dying, like taking paracetamol and wanting to overdose, like going to the beach with my family and almost letting myself be carried off by the sea, like looking at dinner and wondering if I could starve myself to death, like seeing a train coming and wanting to know if it was going fast enough to kill me.

It was sitting at my desk with paper so often before now and trying to figure out what I could write that would excuse what I’d done and knowing it would never be enough.

It was never as easy as deciding not to commit suicide and then not doing it, it was so much harder than that. It was needing help so desperately but having given up the fight long before I could get it. It was turning the ‘if I commit suicide’ into ‘when I commit suicide’.

I know this letter will never justify what I did, that all the things I’ve told you will never be enough of a reason to you, but I couldn’t take it anymore. I’m so sorry for everything Dan, and you’ll never know how much I appreciate everything that you’ve done for me, even if it might not seem like I do.

My ‘when’ has now come, Dan. I’m done. You’re the best friend I could possibly have asked for, and you’re what kept me going for so much longer than I thought I could.

Farewell. I love you.

Phil


	4. Welcome Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reunion at the airport after almost a month apart.

**Word Count: 739**

**Phil’s POV**

I craned my neck to look past the person sitting next to me and out of the plane window, catching glimpses of the beginnings of dawn, the wispy clouds streaked pink and orange on the horizon, and of the ground below. I marvelled at how small everything looked - the spaghetti thin highways with ant sized cars crawling past, the tiny toy houses and their post stamp back gardens and the parks that looked like smudges of green between everything else. I was almost there.

I’d originally gone to America on a family holiday, and had intended to go home a couple of weeks before, but when I’d told Dan about Cat inviting me to stay with her for a while he’d smiled and told me to stay a bit longer. After all, I didn’t get to see our friends in America very often and I usually saw him every day. I’d had a great time, but it had felt weird not having Dan there.

I almost never went anywhere without him anymore, so rolling over in bed and finding the other side empty every time had been disorientating, and it had been odd not to have him by my side to share our inside jokes with. I’d Skyped him nearly every night, but it hadn’t been the same in the slightest, and with each passing day the ache that flared up every time I realised again how much I missed him got worse.

“Happy New Year sir,” a flight attendant said as she passed, holding out a tray of celebratory cookies and snapping me out of my thoughts.

“Thanks, you too.”

I unwrapped my cookie ate it slowly, turning back to the window to watch as we steadily got closer to home. The thought made me feel calmer, but set off a feeling of anticipation that kind of set me on edge. I really couldn’t wait to see him again, and the knowledge that he was so close to me made the feeling intensify.

I’d actually planned to make this a surprise, to just show up at our flat without warning and spend the day snuggled together under a mound of duvets in front of the TV, but when I’d bought the ticket I’d realised I just did not have the patience to wait any longer than absolutely necessary to see him. I’d simply sent him a photo of the flight details and he’d immediately cancelled his plans for the day, promising he’d be there to pick me up despite the early hour my plane was due.

The seat belt sign finally lit up, showing the start of our descent, and I buckled myself in again, leg bouncing up and down impatiently as I waited through the plane’s descent, too distracted to even notice the jolt as the plane landed. Just another short while, and then it would all be ok again.

*****

I weaved through the crowd of people flooding out of the baggage claim, rising up on tiptoes every few seconds to try and find him between the masses of people waiting or hugging one another tightly, bumping into everyone I passed with my suitcase and muttering apologies as I went. I hated airports sometimes, particularly when they were stopping me from finding my boyfriend.

It was only when I had reached the conclusion that it would probably be best to just ditch my suitcase and go look for Dan, without having to drag the bulky thing behind me this time, that I noticed the black-clad figure racing towards me, arms outstretched.

“Phiiiiil,” he yelled as he forced his way through the people surrounding us at an impressive speed.

I dropped my suitcase quickly and braced myself just before he hurtled into me and began trying to crush my ribcage, pressing his lips to mine almost frantically. It took a few moments for him to finally relax a bit, and then a soft sigh escaped him and he pulled back to look at me, his eyes shining.

“I missed you,” he whispered as he hugged me close again, his face now buried in the crook of my shoulder. “Welcome home.”

“I missed you too Dan,” I murmured back, then nudged his head with mine until he lifted it from my shoulder. “Happy New Year.”

I leaned in and kissed him again, then linked my hand with his and grasped the handle of my suitcase again. I was finally home.


	5. Reindeer Rescuer

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phil desperately needs a date to his family’s Christmas party. Enter Dan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for phan-drabble-advent-calendar on tumblr ^.^

**Word Count: 971**

“Please?”

“No.”

“Pretty pretty please?” Phil asked imploringly, clasping his hands together and pouting.

“I’m sticking with no.”

“I’m begging you.”

Serena gave him an unimpressed look and fished another marshmallow out of her hot chocolate.

“I will actually get down on my knees and beg,” Phil threatened, knowing how much it would embarrass her to have the other customers in the coffee shop stare at them.

She narrowed her eyes at him and leaned forwards in her chair.

“You wouldn’t.”

Phil put his coffee down as intimidatingly as he could, preparing to kneel down in front of her. Serena threw her hands up into the air defeatedly, glaring when he grinned triumphantly.

“One last chance. I mean it, I’m only giving you one more chance.”

*****

“The decorations are cute,” the guy said, pointing out the tiny Christmas trees in the corners and the tinsel pinned to the bar.

Phil nodded distractedly, only half taking in the fake snow in the windows that his date was now pointing out. He took another gulp of his wine, and tried to think of something interesting to say.

“Do you, um,” he started, desperately hoping his brain would come up with something once he started talking. When it didn’t, he blurted, “Actually, could you excuse me for just a minute?”

He stood up without waiting for an answer, and walked to the bathroom as quickly as he could without knocking over one of the tiny tables.

“Crap,” he muttered to himself, shoving the door open. “Crap, oh crap, oh crap.”

He started pacing up and down the length of the room, raking his hands through his hair frantically. Serena was going to have him as part of her Christmas dinner if he screwed up another date.

“Chris, Adam, Rick, Benjamin,” he mumbled, pacing faster. “Liam, Jackson, Aiden, Ethan…”

He barely noticed when the door flew open, an angry looking young man storming in and yanking antlers from his head.

“Stupid job. Who the hell made it compulsory to wear freaking antlers to work?” he muttered to himself irritably.

He stopped in his tracks when he saw Phil turning around sharply when the door slammed shut, eyes zeroing in on him.

“Jacob, Michael, Luke,” Phil said more loudly, still looking right at the newcomer. “Alex, Ryan, Oliver, Dylan.”

The newcomer backed up a little, anger forgotten and antlers still clutched in his hand. When Phil took two steps after him, his hands flew up, palms out, ready to defend himself if necessary.

Phil continued frantically, “Isaac, Owen, Henry, Nathan, Max.”

“Are you ok?” the newcomer asked cautiously.

“I’m going to be turned into a pot roast!” Phil replied hysterically, eyes wide and panicked.

The stranger seemed to be caught somewhere between concern and alarm, and took another slow step back towards the door.

“Who is going to turn you into a pot roast?”

“Serena!” Phil wailed.

“And why is this Serena going to turn you into a pot roast?” the stranger asked, looking at Phil warily.

“Because this is the fourth date she’s set me up on in two weeks and I’m going to screw this one up too because I can’t even remember the guy’s name!”

The stranger seemed to be debating whether he should just leave Phil to his crisis.

“Is there a reason you’ve been on so many dates recently?” he finally asked.

“The family Christmas party - I can’t handle another five hours of my aunts grilling me about why I’m still single, and Serena wasn’t free to be my fake girlfriend,” Phil explained, still panicked. “Though it looks like she might kill me before I get to the Christmas party.”

“I see,” the stranger said, seeming slightly relieved that Phil wasn’t completely crazy. “Should I just go ask him his name?”

“No! He’ll somehow know I sent you and get offended and leave! Maybe I’ll remember if I get the first letter of his name,” he added as an afterthought.

The stranger looked a little stunned when Phil started to chant the alphabet at him. He tried to interrupt a few times, but Phil just got louder each time, seeming determined to continue until he remembered.

“Please stop with the alphabet,” he begged as Phil started on his third run through of the alphabet. When Phil just flailed his hands about more empathetically, he strode forwards and gripped Phil’s wrists tightly. “If you stop singing the alphabet at me, I’ll be your fake boyfriend for this Christmas party, deal?”

Phil went silent and looked at the stranger with wide eyes.

“I don’t know your name,” Phil blurted.

“It’s Dan,” he replied, still holding onto Phil’s wrists.

“My aunt Cheryl will keep trying to slap your ass after her fourth cup of eggnog.”

“I’ll drink all the eggnog myself.”

“You have to wear a Christmas themed outfit.”

“And I happen to come with one pre-attached,” Dan countered, finally releasing Phil to do a little twirl.

Phil took in the strangely fancy looking Christmas tree pattern on Dan’s jumper and the antlers he’d shoved back on his head and nodded slightly hesitantly.

“Right,” he said, and paused. “You realise you have to spend a couple of days with a complete stranger and his insane family?”

Dan chuckled. “Well, I already know I’ll need to remind you of my name from time to time, so that’s a pretty great foundation for a fake relationship. Then you get to return the favour at my family’s New Year’s party and endure my hideously drunk relatives.”

“Deal. You’ll need to protect me from Serena’s wrath when she finds out about this though, because otherwise I won’t make it till the end of this week,” Phil warned.

“I sincerely promise to bribe her with copious amounts of her favourite chocolate.”

Phil glowed. “You’re my new favourite person.”


	6. Niffler Escapades

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phil accidentally lets a Niffler loose in Hogwarts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was written for the Phandom Little Pop and it's such a cool event you should definitely go check it out :D it was beta'd by Aili (phan-with-a-ph on tumblr) and the art was done by Charlotte (doodlingphans on tumblr).

“Dan,” Phil whispered, shaking his boyfriend’s shoulder. “Dan, wake up!”

Dan mumbled something about sprouts under his breath and burrowed further under the duvet.

“Wake up,” Phil hissed again, poking him in the side with his wand.

Dan growled at him and hauled the duvet up over his head,

Phil straightened up and glared. “If you don’t get up right now, I’m going to jinx all of your hair off in our next Charms class and say it was an accident.”

Dan’s sleepy head appeared from under the duvet, his hand pushing his fringe out of his eyes so he could blink at Phil blearily.

His tongue darted out to wet his lips. “How did you get in here?”

“The same way you did. The knocker asked me a question, I answered it, and boom, here I am.”

Dan nodded, his eyes falling shut again as he lifted a corner of the duvet, inviting Phil to get in with him. Phil hesitated, tempted to deal with the mess he’d made the next day. The thought of how the trophy room had looked when he’d left it stopped him from climbing into bed.

“No, get up, I need your help,” Phil urged, grabbing the duvet corner and yanking.

His boyfriend sat up, shivered, and gave Phil a look that promised violence if he didn’t have a damn good explanation.

“I stole a Niffler,” Phil blurted, twirling his wand between his fingers anxiously.

Dan’s expression barely changed, his eyebrows just lifting slightly.

“You know how we studied them in Care of Magical Creatures? Well, the Niffler I was paired up with seemed to really like me, and he was so cute and gentle.” Phil paused. “I swear it seemed like he was trying to convince me to take him with me. So I did.”

Dan rubbed his hands over his face briskly, and kept his face in his hands.

“So you’re telling me that you got manipulated,” he said, voice muffled, “by a Niffler.”

“Yes.”

“Please tell me you came to your senses, returned the Niffler and that you just chose a stupid time to tell me.”

“I can’t.”

Dan groaned softly, and lifted his face from his hands to glare at Phil.

“Then let’s go catch a Niffler.”

*****

“Merlin’s beard, Phil!” Dan gaped at the room around them.

“I know,” Phil replied miserably.

“Are you sure just one Niffler did this?”

Phil nodded, and turned to look at Dan with big, guilt filled eyes. “I didn’t realise just how much they can fit into their pouches.”

“Clearly,” Dan remarked drily, surveying the room again.

The glass cases that had housed the trophies had been shattered, shards of glass scattered all over the floor and the bigger trophies lying abandoned on their sides. Some of the cases had holes punched through one side, as if the Niffler had launched itself through the panes, and others had somehow been toppled.

A few of the cases had been broken in half from the force of the fall, the wood splintered at the break and shards of glass barely hanging onto the frame.

“I don’t know if I’m ever going to forgive you for this.”

“Oh shush, just help me figure out where else in this castle a Niffler can go for shiny objects.”

“Does silverware count?”

Phil winced, and hurried out of the room in the direction of the kitchen. He really didn’t want to know the outcome of a battle between house elves and a Niffler.

It didn’t take Dan long to overtake him, his longer legs bringing him to the kitchen a bit faster than his boyfriend. When Phil slowed to a stop, Dan had already tickled the pear into opening the entrance to the kitchen, but he seemed a bit reluctant to head inside.

Phil stepped around the portrait that had been swung open to face him as he came down the corridor, and saw why.

Usually, house elves were thrilled to welcome any student that showed up at their doorstep, always overloading them with food no matter how much the student protested. The house elf facing off with Dan looked the complete opposite of thrilled.

She actually looked quite angry, which was slightly terrifying in itself. Phil hadn’t been sure if house elves were capable of being angry at anyone but themselves when they thought they’d done something their master wouldn’t approve of.

“I’m going to go ahead and assume a small, black, furry creature came by here and took a rather strong liking to your forks,” Dan said, addressing the house elf.

She nodded slowly, her wide eyes narrowed suspiciously. “It was yours?”

“Mine, actually,” Phil piped up, hoping the house elf wasn’t angry enough to hurl a wooden spoon at him.

She lifted her chin slightly, and pointed down the hall. “I chase it off. It run that way. No bring it back.”

The house elf snapped her fingers with more authority than was usually seen from them, and the portrait swung shut again.

“I hate you,” Dan told Phil matter of factly, turning to stride in the direction the house elf had pointed in.

“I know,” Phil groaned, following him. “Do you think those crystal balls in Divination count as shiny? Can a Niffler even get up there?”

Dan shrugged and swung around a corner.

“It’s worth a try, I don’t have any better ideas,” he said. “So how do you plan on making this up to me?”

They hit the stairs and took them two at a time while Phil considered.

“By reminding you that I’m your favourite person and that you would do anything for me?”

Dan just shot him an unimpressed look as he shoved a tapestry out of the way and started down the shortcut.

“Heartless,” Phil huffed, trying to ignore the stitch stabbing into his side as they finally reached the North Tower. “How about promising never to kidnap a Niffler again?”

“You suck at this,” Dan remarked as he pointed his wand at the trapdoor to make the ladder come down. “After you.”

Phil clambered up the ladder quickly and hauled himself onto the floor in a very undignified way, panting loudly. “Honeydukes chocolate?”

His boyfriend climbed into the room looking a lot less dishevelled than Phil, despite being in his pyjamas, and pointed his wand something being Phil.

“Immobulus,” he said calmly, picking his way across the floor to where the Niffler sat frozen among dozens of crystal balls, as if he hadn’t been sure how he felt about them.

Dan gently picked up the Niffler and brought him back to Phil.

“Honeydukes chocolate would be a start.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love all Hogwarts AUs but had never written one before and now I have and it has the perfect art to go with it and I had the best beta so I am a very happy bunny ^.^


	7. Hero and the Civilian

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An angry Dan has to rescue Phil and his cat from a tree.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this was also written for the Phandom Little Pop, it was beta'd by Jules (lightwood-lewis on tumblr) and the art was done by Ness (merpugs on tumblr) and she turned it into a gif and I'm so in love with it!!! :D

Dan stormed out of the house, slamming the door behind him as loudly as he could. He knew it was unlikely to do much to help the fight he'd just had with his parents, but it made him feel a little better. There was something cathartic about flinging a door shut as hard as possible.

He shoved his hands deep into his pockets and stomped across the road, slowing down halfway across the street to allow a car to pass. A small part of him viciously thought of how his parents would feel if he were to be crushed under a car just after their fight. On a rational level, he knew that he definitely did not want to be hit by car purely to make his parents feel horrible, but he still got some sadistic satisfaction from imagining their guilt.

Dan kept marching through the streets, shoulders pulled up and hunched forwards slightly. He kept replaying the fight, shoulders tightening a bit more with each repeat. He was sure he'd come round to understand why they'd done it, but for now he couldn't stop his blood from roaring through his veins every time he thought of the way they'd gone behind his back.

He wasn't entirely sure where he was going until he found himself at the nearest park entrance. He snorted - of course he'd ended up at a park again. Every time he thought he was wandering around aimlessly, or was upset about something, he found himself at a park. Sometimes Dan didn't fully realise until he'd already been there for a while.

He had no idea why he always subconsciously headed for the nearest park, but he couldn't bring himself to cary much about why at that moment. His heart was still beating too fast, his breath huffing out in frustrated half screams every time he thought of how his mother had acted like what they'd done had been perfectly justified, how his father had crossed his arms and told him to stop overreacting.

Dan veered off the path and crashed through the trees, putting some distance between him and the other park visitors. Once he was far enough away, he stopped abruptly, pulling his hands out of his pockets to clutch at his head.

He took a deep breath.

"WHY?" he screamed at the sky. "GODDAMNIT, WHY?"

He took his hands away from his ears in favour of pulling at his hair, gulping down air in an attempt to calm himself down.

"I don't know," a small voice offered hesitantly.

Dan jumped, looking around wildly for the source of the voice. If he'd started hallucinating talking trees, he wasn't sure what he'd do with himself.

"Up here," the same voice piped up, sounding slightly worried.

He directed his gaze to the branches above and instantly spotted a guy of about his age straddling a branch and hugging a ginger tabby to his chest. Dan swore violently.

"You couldn't think of a better way to announce yourself? You had to give me a heart attack?"

The stranger's bright eyes darted around a little nervously. "I thought you were yelling at me - you were kind of screaming in my direction."

Dan huffed out a laugh, shaking his head disbelievingly.

"My apologies then, I just had a fight that's left me rather angry," he said. "I didn't even notice you. Or your cat."

"Right," the stranger replied. "Well, um, I realise you're angry, and probably rightfully so, but please remember I'm an innocent bystander when I ask this."

Dan nodded slowly.

"I was taking Peaches - my cat, for a walk earlier, but she escaped and tried to eat a duck but when it attacked her she ran away. I chased after her and climbed up this tree to come get her, only I can't climb down with her and now we're both stuck."

Dan just stared for a couple of moments. So many things about his story were bizarre.

"You can take cats on walks?" he blurted.

"Yeah, they have these kitty leashes that attach to a harness, but Peaches turned into Houdini and wriggled out."

"Ducks can attack cats?"

"Well, this particular duck definitely can."

"You want me to rescue you and your Houdini cat from a tree?"

"Yes please."

Dan rubbed a hand over his face briskly. "What's your name?"

"Phil," he answered. "What's yours?"

"Phil, you're weird," Dan said, grabbing the lowest branch and hauling himself up. "And you can call me Dan, but 'Hero' has a certain ring to it too."

Phil laughed, the sound making the rest of Dan's anger melt away. He grinned up at him as he grabbed the next branch.

"I won't be able to climb down while holding a cat either, but we can take turns holding Peaches while the other climbs down to a lower branch."

Dan held his hands out and hissed when Peaches' claws sank firmly into his arms, the cat complaining loudly. "I don't think your cat likes me."

"I don't think she likes anyone, and I'm including myself in that," Phil answered, lowering himself deftly to the branch under Dan. "You don't want to know how many scars I have because of her."

"She doesn't fight fair either, she has cuteness on her side."

They kept handing the cat off until they were all back on the ground, Phil holding onto her tightly so he wouldn't lose her to a tree again.

"Thank you, Hero Dan," he said, smiling widely.

"You're welcome, Civilian Phil."

Phil hesitated a moment, then asked, "Is there any chance I can buy you a thank you hot chocolate?"

"I did do pretty great work here," Dan mused. "I mean, I'm pretty much the next Hercules."

Phil laughed. "You're the spitting image, you just need a toga."

"Damn, I misplaced it sometime last week," Dan tutted.

"So, hot chocolate?"

"I'd like that."


End file.
